Trent, still anxious to hear your brewing background and where you got your PH know how!
Nothing extraordinary about my brewing background. A friend introduced me back in '95/'96 and been brewing since.
pH and water knowledge (increasing in technicality as time progresses) in brewing is as old as the hills and has been known by European brewers for at least the last century (plus some).
IMHO, all home-brewers and most, if not all, of the big names in home-brewing ride on the shoulders of giants (DeClerck, Briggs, Authors of old German brewing texts, etc...).